An elderly woman accidentally misplaced her bottom teeth – in her stomach.
An 88-year-old woman from Dallas, Texas, was taken to the emergency department at UT Southwestern Medical Center after she “mysteriously” lost a partial set of teeth while eating dinner.
According to Jam Press, the woman’s family rushed her to the hospital when they couldn’t figure out how her bottom teeth suddenly “disappeared”.
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The woman appeared to be in little or no pain – and seemed to have no problem swallowing.
When doctors examined the woman, her vital signs appeared within normal limits.
A woman with a history of cerebral palsy, dementia and lymphoma swallowed partial dentures without realizing it – they got stuck in her stomach until doctors used a scope to remove them. (Jam Press)
Because the woman had a history of strokes, Alzheimer’s-related dementia and lymphoma of the brain, however, doctors decided to do an endoscopy to see if she had swallowed the teeth and simply forgotten about them or didn’t even know what had happened.
During the scan, doctors saw teeth in his abdominal cavity.
Shortly after this discovery, doctors reinserted the scope, this time with a foreign body hood protector attached to the tip.
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After several attempts to retrieve the tooth, doctors finally successfully removed the tooth by grasping it with a forceps-like instrument.
Doctors saw the woman’s bottom teeth in her stomach when they did an endoscopy to see if they could find false teeth. (Jam Press)
According to Jam Press, the woman was not seriously injured in the incident – and was able to return home the next day.
The medical team said that teeth are commonly eaten by older adults.
The hospital’s press office declined to discuss specific details of patient care due to privacy regulations but referred Fox News Digital to a published case study about the incident.
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“Foreign body ingestion is an under-recognized risk in adults, particularly in the elderly where it can lead to significant morbidity and even mortality,” the study noted.
“Even a large partial tooth can be swallowed and extra vigilance is necessary in the care of patients with dementia.”
“We present a case of an elderly patient who bit his teeth without notice. After early identification, endoscopic retrieval of the object was performed. We support endoscopy as a safe and effective intervention for removal of embedded foreign bodies in the geriatric population,” the study also stated.
“In most cases, [foreign] The material in question will pass through the GI tract unimpeded. However, endoscopic retrieval is required in adults in about 20 percent of cases and emergency surgery is required another 1 percent of the time,” the group also noted in the study.
After about two hours, the doctors were able to successfully extract the tooth from the patient’s stomach. (Jam Press)
A study reporting a case of an “elderly patient resulting in a difficult, but successful, endoscopic recovery” was published in late 2020.
The team added that a woman’s health history, including dementia, may make her less aware of the pain that may be associated with teeth going down into her abdomen.
“Dentures are actually one of the most commonly eaten items in adults.”
Source by [Fox News]
